Sylvester Weaver | |
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Weaver in 1989
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Born |
Sylvester Laflin Weaver, Jr. December 21, 1908 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Died | March 15, 2002 Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
(aged 93)
Occupation | Executive |
Years active | 1930s – 1970s |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Inglis (m. 1942–2002) |
Children | Trajan Victor Charles Weaver Sigourney Weaver (b. 1949) |
Sylvester Laflin "Pat" Weaver, Jr. (December 21, 1908 – March 15, 2002) was an American radio advertising executive, who became president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping commercial broadcasting's format and philosophy as radio gave way to television as America's dominant home entertainment. His daughter is actress Sigourney Weaver.
Weaver was born Sylvester Laflin Weaver, Jr. in Los Angeles, the son of Eleanor Isabel (née Dixon) and Sylvester Laflin Weaver. He was of Scottish descent (possibly Clan MacFarlane), as well as of Ulster-Scots and early New England ancestry. He was a great-great-grandson of Charles Laflin, a gunpowder manufacturer, who came to America in 1740 from Ulster, Ireland, settling at Oxford, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Charles Laflin and his family were living at Oxford, Massachusetts, when he purchased land in 1749 in the Southern (South-) village (-wick) part of the town of Westfield, Massachusetts. He was the brother of comedian Doodles Weaver. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1930, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He also served in the United States Navy from 1942 through 1945.
He married Elizabeth Inglis in 1942. She was born Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins on July 10, 1913 in Colchester, Essex, England; and died on August 25, 2007 in Santa Barbara, California. She made her screen debut in Borrowed Clothes (1934) as well as having a number of small parts in some of Alfred Hitchcock's early movies. She reached the high point of her career when she co-starred with Bette Davis in William Wyler's movie The Letter. She retired from acting when she married in 1942. The couple were the parents of two children, Trajan Victor Charles and Sigourney (born Susan Alexandra).